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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Capet_of_FranceHugh Capet[1]  was the first 
King of France of the eponymous 
Capetian dynasty from his election to succeed the 
Carolingian Louis V in 987 until his death.
The son of 
Hugh the Great, 
Duke of France, and 
Hedwige of Saxony, daughter of the 
German king Henry the Fowler, Hugh was born about 940. His paternal family, the 
Robertians, were powerful landowners in the 
Île-de-France. His grandfather had been 
King Robert I and his grandmother 
Beatrice was a Carolingian, a daughter of 
Herbert I of Vermandois. 
King Odo was his great uncle and 
King Rudolph Odo's son-in-law. Hugh was born into a well-connected and powerful family with many ties to the reigning nobility of Europe.
[2] But for all this, Hugh's father was never king. When Rudolph died in 936, Hugh the Great organized the return of 
Louis d'Outremer, son of 
Charles the Simple, from his exile at the court of 
Athelstan of England. Hugh's motives are unknown, but it is presumed that he acted to forestall Rudolph's brother and successor as Duke of Burgundy, 
Hugh the Black from taking the French throne, or to prevent it from falling into the grasping hands of 
Herbert II of Vermandois or 
William Longsword, 
duke of Normandy[3].
In 956, Hugh inherited his father's estates and became one of the most powerful nobles in the much-reduced West Frankish kingdom. However, as he was not yet an adult, his uncle 
Bruno, 
Archbishop of Cologne, acted as 
regent. Young Hugh's neighbours made the most of the opportunity. 
Theobald I of Blois, a former vassal of Hugh the Great, took the counties of 
Chartres and 
Châteaudun. Further south, on the border of the kingdom, 
Fulk II of Anjou, another former client of Hugh the Great, carved out a principality at Hugh's expense and that of the 
Bretons.
[4]The realm in which Hugh died, and of which he would one day be king, bore no resemblance to modern France. Hugh's predecessors did not call themselves rois de France , and that title was not used until the time of his distant descendant 
Philip the Fair . Kings ruled as rex Francorum  and the lands over which they ruled comprised only a very small part of the former 
Carolingian Empire. The 
eastern Frankish lands, the 
Holy Roman Empire, were ruled by the 
Ottonian dynasty, represented by Hugh's first cousin 
Otto II and then by Otto's son, 
Otto III. The lands south of the 
river Loire had largely ceased to be part of the West Frankish kingdom in the years after Charles the Simple was deposed in 922. The 
Duchy of Normandy and the 
Duchy of Burgundy were largely independent, and 
Brittany entirely so, although from 956 Burgundy was ruled by Hugh's brothers 
Odo and 
Henry.
[5]